President Uhuru Kenyatta: Akon A Good Example To Young People

Kenya is such a blessed country. It has amazing young talent and visionary leaders. That’s why we shine internationally-on the racing track, the tourism industry powered by our beautiful landscape and in the theaters where the likes of Lupita Nyong’o and Edi Gathegi have represented us.

That’s why BET-Award Winning recording artist Akon came in last week to meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta for further talks about his project that seeks to bring lighting to Africa. His investment in Kenya comes after the two met in Washington during the US-Africa Leaders Summit which happened in August.

“I met the president and the minister in Washington and promised them I would visit Kenya. Here I am.” said Aliaune Damala. President Uhuru praised Akon by saying that he’s a good example to the youth and urged young people to emulate him by giving back to the society. Below is the President’s official statement on his Facebook page and the photos.

Today, I held a meeting with U.S -based Senegalese musician, Akon, who paid me a courtesy call at State House, Nairobi. Akon affirmed his commitment to support Government’s initiative to light up Kibera and other selected parts of rural Kenya. This is part of his Lighting Africa project that aims to provide electricity to a million households across the continent by the end of the year. It is good to see that discussions on scaling up supply of power to Kenyans that we started during last month’s U.S – Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington, DC are bearing fruits. I commend Akon for being a role model to African youths and I would like to encourage others to emulate him by investing back in their mother countries. We welcome this initiative and we will give him all the support he needs.

Sometime I interviewed Akon’s protigy, Congolese teen singer-rapper Innoss’B (Innocent Balume). He was discovered by Akon back in 2010 and he has grown to be an incredibly talented singer. He did a duet with Akon titled “Anyway” and has since produced quality music. People call him the African Justin Bieber because of his unique voice. Akon believes in the future of Africa and supports young talent from his homeland. He has done a collaboration with MTV-EMA 2014 nominee Davido on his track “Dami Duro” and signed talented artist Wiz Kid to his label Konvict. You can read my `interview with Innocent Balume here: